Urban Empowerment Youth Canvass for U4HN
The planning team for the Unite For Healthy Neighborhoods (U4HN) Community Workshop was looking for ideas to get the word out about the event. U4HN co-chair Verna Harris-Laboy thought of using teens to canvass door-to-door in various central city neighborhoods. “I came up with the plan at a breakfast meeting exactly one week before we were to do the event,” she said with a laugh. That meant quick action was necessary. Sam Robinson, also an event co-chair, suggested asking the youth of Urban Empowerment and their friends to help out. Five days later a training session was held, and on Saturday April 3, they began knocking on doors.
To help the youths get ready for this experience, Robinson, Harris-Laboy, Gina Edwards, and Shannon Canfield presented the teens with a script to learn and engaged them in various role-paying scenarios.
On the day of the canvass, the youth were put into teams and assigned specific neighborhoods. An adult went along with each team.
Community reaction was overwhelmingly positive, said Harris-Laboy, but the youth did receive a dose of reality as well. “Some people were afraid to open their doors to a group of Black teens, someof the teens were met with apathy and indifference but they kept moving forward to the next door,” she explained. She said that one goal of involving the teens was help them gain the knowledge of what a grassroots movement looks like. “To help them understand that they can make a positive difference in other’s lives, especially where they live.”
Harris-Laboy wasn’t sure what the end result would be. “There was not a written goal, but I figured 100 completed registrations would be aggressive for these young people who have no prior experience at canvassing,” she said. The teens exceeded that and signed-up 130 families that day.
